Qualification, Nomination and Selection

The AOC intends to send a team of around 50 athletes to the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang. All of the relevant documentation regarding selection for the 2018 Australian Winter Olympic Team will be available from this area of the AOC website.

Athletes and officials are encouraged to check their specific sport for relevant documentation and updates between now and the Games.

QUALIFICATION, NOMINATION and SELECTION

Team Selection is a 3 step process.

1/ Qualification (under the IF Qualification System)

2/ Nomination (under the NF Nomination Criteria)

3/ Selection (under the AOC Selection Criteria)

All of the International Federation 'Qualification Systems' have been released by the IOC and published by sport below. Sport-specific National Federation Nomination Criteria have also been approved and are also published below.

The process for securing selection on the 2018 Australian Winter Olympic Team differs from sport to sport. The following is a simple explanation of the steps in the process and the sport by sport breakdown.

These summaries should not be relied upon, and are not intended to in any way replace athletes’ reading the full Nomination Criteria. Where there is any inconsistency between these summaries and the full Nomination Criteria, the Nomination Criteria will prevail.

Qualification

In some sports athletes will earn quota places for themselves (called “by name”), and in others they will earn places for Australia. This is determined in each sport by the International Federation, and contained in a document called the Qualification System.

There are a series of ways each International Federation may develop their qualification pathway, which includes World Ranking Lists, one-off qualification events or a series of events across one or multiple seasons.

Nomination

When Australia is allocated the quota place, the National Federation then decides how it will choose which Australian athletes will compete. This process is contained in a document called the Nomination Criteria.

Each sports Nomination Criteria sets out the event, performance standard or minimum qualification requirements an athlete must achieve to be eligible for nomination. For some sports this may be attendance at National Championships and the winner of that competition will be nominated. In other sports athletes may need to achieve a specific score, time or standard.

Selection

Once a sport nominates athletes to the AOC, the AOC Selection Committee considers each athlete based on the behavioural, anti-doping and administrative elements of an AOC document called the Selection Criteria. The AOC develops a Selection Criteria for every sport. Selection is at the absolute discretion of the AOC.

Below is a high level summary of each sports’ qualification and nomination process.

Olympic Appeals Consultant

The AOC appoints Olympic Appeal Consultants for Australian Olympic Teams.

The position has been established following review of our Olympic Team Selection process for the past few Games. This role is described in Clause 10 of the AOC Olympic Team Selection By-Law. Olympic Appeals Consultants are available to discuss with the athlete, who may have appealed or may wish to appeal, the reason(s) for non-nomination by their National Federation (NF) to the AOC or non-selection by the AOC.

The Olympic Appeal Consultant will not provide legal advice to Athletes but ensure that the Athlete fully understands the reasons for the decision in question. The Olympic Appeal Consultant is to facilitate a consultative process between the Athlete and the NF or the AOC as the case may be.

The AOC and the NF are required to fully co-operate with the Olympic Appeal Consultant in this regard.